Lieberman, Self-Obsessed Incumbent Par Excellence

With his behavior Tuesday night, Lieberman has turned himself into the most vivid symbol of the insular, arrogant, corrupt and power-desperate Washington establishment, the sheer cravenness and corruption of which are what catalyzed the campaign against him in the first place.

Those who compose that entrenched Beltway power establishment — the endlessly reelected political officials, the hordes of consultants and lobbyists who feed off and control them, and the pampered, self-loving “journalists” who enable it all — are characterized by a single-minded quest to perpetuate their own power, flavored by a thinly masked contempt for the masses on whose behalf this system ostensibly plods along. Lieberman’s conduct last night was a perfect textbook for all of those afflictions.

Like the establishment mavens who rushed to defend him, Lieberman exposed himself as a man driven by a single, overarching motivation — a desperate desire to cling to his source of power, his Senate seat, not because of any political ideals he wants to pursue but solely because of the personal satisfaction, attention and benefits it provides him. Embodying one of the defining attributes of the permanent Beltway class, Lieberman plainly craves — has become addicted to — the petty trappings of his role in the grand Beltway court. The only cause that seems to stir Joe Lieberman to anger, aggression and confrontation is the glorious struggle for Joe Lieberman to cling to his Senate seat. ~Glenn Greenwald, Salon

And in embracing Lieberman so tightly, the GOP has signalled that the only things that matters to it are the war and protecting arrogant incumbents. If there is any common sense left in the public, they will see through this scam and the GOP will go down to great defeat this year. Let the fun begin!